


Awake

by minikawa



Category: Monster (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Fix-It, Fluff, Healing, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Spoilers, minor description of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-14 21:24:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21022499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minikawa/pseuds/minikawa
Summary: "When you've recovered, we should go on another picnic."Grimmer didn't expect to wake up. And he certainly didn't expect to see a tired doctor sleeping by his bedside. (Post-canon)





	Awake

**Author's Note:**

> Whoot! It's reupload time, babey!!!

He remembered a dark room with blood-soaked walls and blood-soaked floors. He remembered feeling cold and heavy and numb, despite the wounds that had ripped through his body. He remembered talking to someone, each word coming out in labored breaths. He had asked to go on another picnic with them, even though he knew he wasn’t going to make it. 

He remembered crying. 

The memories flooded back to him as he opened his eyes. The ceiling lights attacked his vision, but when he brought up an arm to wipe at his eyes, he was met with a sharp pain. Grimmer could hardly move, let alone sit up in his hospital bed, without feeling a deep and throbbing ache. 

An ache meant that he was still alive. 

Despite the annoyingly bright lights, Grimmer scanned his surroundings as best as he could. He had no memory of this place, of the pale green curtains, white linen sheets, and monotonous machinery. The room was quiet, other than the rhythmic beeping of the monitor beside his bed, and the quiet breathing of Doctor Tenma sleeping by his-

Tenma?

Grimmer blinked in surprise to find the man slumped in a chair next to his bed, fast asleep. His hair was disheveled (well, more disheveled than usual), and Grimmer could see that a light scruff had grown over his jawline. Dark shadows circled his eyes, but otherwise he looked peaceful...more peaceful than Grimmer had ever seen him. It was like this was the first time the doctor had allowed himself to rest in several years. 

How long had Tenma sat here, Grimmer wondered, waiting for him to wake up? Was he the one that had operated on him? How many nights did he spend tending to his wounds, no matter how hopeless it seemed? 

Just the thought made his heart do something he had never felt before. It fluttered. 

It wasn’t long until the doctor stirred. He shifted in his seat and yawned (Grimmer’s heart did the fluttery thing again) before opening his eyes. As soon as Tenma returned to the waking world, their eyes locked. Surprise washed over the doctor’s face. Grimmer smiled.

“Good morning, Herr Doktor.”

“Grimmer...you’re…”

“Awake. Thanks to you, I presume.” Grimmer smiled tiredly, looking down at his bedridden form. “I’m just as surprised as you are. I didn’t think I’d wake up...not that I’m ungrateful.” 

Tenma nodded tentatively, settling back in his chair. Grimmer tried to read the expression on the doctor’s face. Surprise and worry he could recognize...but there was another that he couldn’t quite name. Relief, perhaps...mixed with a kind of disbelief. No, not disbelief. Fear...fear that this was just a dream, and that Grimmer wasn’t really awake-

Grimmer shook off the thought. 

“How long had I been out?”

Tenma was quiet. His silence had lasted less than a minute, yet it felt like an eternity. 

“Three weeks.”

Grimmer blinked. Three weeks. For two weeks he had swayed between the arms of death and life. And as he danced between those two worlds, Tenma had been slaving to save him. For three weeks, Tenma had stayed with him. From Ruhenheim to this hospital room, he stayed. 

He stayed. 

“I must have been a lot of trouble, haven’t I?” Grimmer smiled sadly. 

Tenma frowned. “No, of course not! You’re never any trouble for me. I’m just…I’m so glad you made it through. I can’t even describe how incredibly strong you are for pulling through all that.” 

Warmth filled Grimmer’s heart. You’re the strong one, he wanted to tell the doctor. For surviving all those years of being on the run...for continuing to fight and save other people’s lives...for staying with me all this time...

As Grimmer adjusted to his return to the living world, Tenma spent the next hour or so recounting everything that happened at Ruhenheim. After all these years, Tenma had finally found Johan. It was not he who shot the fateful bullet, however, but Wim’s father. Johan survived, and his condition seemed uncertain...but it was over. 

It was all finally over. 

Tenma finished his story, and Grimmer felt something move within his heart as he looked at the man who had survived it all. All those years as a fugitive, rejected and outcasted...they were over. The man before him, tired and scarred but unbroken, was a hero. And this hero had saved his life, and sat by his bedside for nights on end until now. 

His hero.

“Grimmer?”

“Hmm?”

Tenma cleared his throat, then took a breath.He flushed a little. “When you’ve recovered...we should go on another picnic. I could make us some sandwiches, and maybe bring some wine and cheese. We can go hiking again, and find a nice spot on the hills...facing the water and the sun. Maybe we could go fishing together sometime too.” A tiny smile quirked on his lips. “I heard the fish get pretty big around the springtime…”

Grimmer blinked in surprise, then slowly he returned the smile. 

“I would love that.”


End file.
